Little boys mommies
by mp22mp22
Summary: AU- RE-WRITTEN AND UPDATED. When the future meets the present and only there is a person able to stop the impending tragedy. Acompany our favourite hero and his childreen in this great adventure. Envolvement of other characters and situations from marvel . Rating M mostly because of the language and situations.
1. Chapter 1

**As a warning, I'm not a writer and english is not my first language but everyone keeps telling me that I need to practice... So blame my mistakes on Google translator :D**

Relax...

_"Hey Tony, she's not gonna leave you standing alone on the altar..." a tall dark man said, showing his bright smile." She helped and supported you on the messiest times of your life; it would be a waste to turn her back on you right now."_

_The groom's hands were sweaty and his whole body stiff, as if this was the scariest experience of his life... Maybe it was._

_The church was full of people, she had wanted a small wedding, but he was Tony Stark. There were white rose petals everywhere; the sun was brightening the old church through large windows. The mixture of bright light and the smell of roses originated a magical atmosphere._

Her smell...

* * *

_Her smell..._

_Fuck..._

There was the sound of heavy rain and her smell...

But that wasn't possible...

Pepper was in New York now, away from him and his self-destructive personality. Their marriage hadn't last long.

However, it was her smell, her smooth skin, her flaming red hair...

She was sleeping comfortably curled next to him, naked with one of his hands around her waist and her back was pressed against his chest. How much he had missed this feeling.

His head was pounding due to the shots and one and half bottle of Jack Daniels.

He had come to New York to receive a simple award. Not that he usually showed up for such ceremonies, however to his displeasure and great insistence from that board, he had been forced to attend it. The decrease of the value of the company, the instability of the past years and of course the repercussions of her absence in the company made everything particularly hard for him. It never crossed his mind that she would be there wearing an amazing emerald dress with a long cleavage and see a stupid Australian rock singer with an arm around her waist. After lost looks and small blinks... And probably because of the liquid courage, they were dancing together and sharing stolen kisses in front of everyone's noses.

Virginia "Pepper" Potts was now a renowned actress, after her modelling career in her early twenties and being the only woman ever married to Tony Stark, it was easy to return to the modelling and acting world. In the beginning everyone said that she was simply a cute girl with an accounting degree that had been lucky in life, yet she show them otherwise. After the divorce she tried to follow her dreams and she was successful.

This was an old new for Tony. Since Pepper, he had return to what he was after his parent's death. Yet, although he was known for being the reincarnation of Casanova, he wasn't very lucky in his relationships. His nights were full of faceless women. But she wasn't some unknown girl, she was his ex-wife, someone that had him hurt badly, leaving him without a reason to fight or live.

Everything on his life was different. He wasn't the same old Tony Stark, she had taken a part of him that was impossible to replace... He still was Iron Man, he still was a billionaire and a genius, but apart from that... Those were the only things that she had left, a shadow of a man he once had been. She was the reason why he was able to become someone better. The first time it had been his fault. The fear covered by a well-structured lie, that the people that he love were much better without him. This time, he could not understand half of the things that had happened.

"Who are you?"

A small kid was staring at Tony. He had brown hair and a few freckles on his face. However in the dark room, his most noticeable characteristic was his ice cold blue eyes.

My father's eyes... My eyes staring at me...

"Did you know that Captain America punches man that sleep with little boys´ mommies?" He was standing close to the bed wearing a shirt with the same drawing of Steve's shield, with an evil smile on his face. "If I were you I would be running for the door..."

"Captain America is a loser and he would never kick someone's butt because of that, especially considering that he doesn´t even understand the concept of sleeping with someone, let alone little boys' mommies." Tony said while supressing a smile, hiding his face in Pepper's smooth orange hair.

"He is not A LOSER!"

"If you say so...But he's still a loser kid."

The boy was shocked with the boldness of that man. He was unlike the others, not that there were many others. He had only seen a couple of man with his mother and in those cases they had been publicly dating for more than half a year. He was only there to make sure that the relationships wouldn't last much longer. He hasn't a bad kid, but he was smart, probably too smart, he knew that those man would never bring anything good for him or his mother.

He was different. Not only because of his mind, but also due to his gifts, how his mother liked to call them. Most of the times he assumed that his mother was embarrass of his existence. That was the reason why only a really small number of people knew about him. Yet he knew that his mother was trying to protect him from the world, mostly because of his gifts. He wasn't naive, he knew what the world had done to people like him and what they had done against each other. Still it was hard to live this way, hidden behind curtains and shadows.

"Do you need something?" the kid's mouth was open. _Who does he think he is?_ "You are probably a hallucination, but fruit of my imagination or not, never drink alcohol in your life, it's bad for you."

Every minute that passed, the boy was getting more and more angry with Tony. His fists were closed as if he was preparing for a fight, his eyes clouded with red and his breathing was heavier. In Tony's eyes the situation was just funny. He still was the kind of guy that picked up fights with six year olds just for fun, he changed but not that much. Yet, the kid wasn´t stopping. Suddenly the air was heavy and the blue brightness from Tony's arc reactor wasn't the only light in the room.

**I hope that someone enjoys and please tell me something... The mistakes are not my fault...**


	2. Chapter 2

_Another quiet night in the mansion, another day without a simple word. Tony was nowhere to be seen, probably had gone out. Everything was just unusual, she never felt so lost and alone in her whole life. There were still reliable things in her life such as her job, yet nothing felt the same. When she was his PA everything was clear for her, the job was to check out on him, force him to go to meetings and make sure that he stayed out of trouble. As a CEO her job was to run the company that he had inherited from his father and again make sure that he stayed out of trouble. But was his wife... He had gotten used to the idea that she would always be there for him._

_"Mrs Stark, Mr Stark is entering in the house." said a robotic voice that resonated though the metallic and shiny superficies of the room._

_"Thank you Jarvis."_

_The path ahead of her was strangely calm. She walk slowly with her heels, however everything seemed like a blur of white walls and metallic structures. She inserted the code to enter in the lab, while watching him through the strong glass. He was sitting on his desk wearing his suit. She had known him all of his life, yet at this moment she couldn't even recognise him. In her mind the scenario couldn't get much worse._

_"Hi" she started with a stern voice._

_"Pepper I don't have the patience for this right now..."_

_"How are you? How is your life going?" that had come out wrong but Tony knew that she clearly had mean it._

_"Pep... Don't be bitter."_

_"Fine suit yourself. If you don't have the time to talk that's okay, I had years to get used to that."_

_Their relationship had been shaky for some time now. His sudden need to be alone and by himself had given a profound mark in their relationship and as always, Tony was clueless. Every day she remembered more frequently of the old Tony Stark, she wondered if some day she would start the dry cleaning again. Pepper Stark, contrary to popular believes wasn't a woman to stay in her seat and give up, however she knew when she needed to let go. She felt that she was the only caring on and there was the need to change, not only for her but for the sake of both of them. Tony Stark needed a lesson and there wasn't anyone better than his wife to teach him that._

* * *

Tony felt her movements in is close embrace. She had wakened with a start, a strange feeling that something was really wrong.

"Baby..." Pepper whispered with a sweet and smooth voice.

His arm was holding her tight, trying to protect her. The need to keep her from harm's way was still there. It felt like no time had passed.

"What's wrong?" the kid looked up, connecting his red eyes with his mother's. Her back was pressed against Tony, trying to show them both that they hadn't nothing to fear.

"Everything is fine, relax." her melodic voice resonated through the entire room. The atmosphere was getting calmer and soothing by the second. There was only the sound of heavy breaths, rain and boys eyes were changing their colour, the room was darker and the only source of light at this moment was the artificial glow from Tony's chest, in part blocked by Pepper's body.

"That's it, look I' m here." her smile lightened up the boy's face, stained by tears. However there was still sadness and regret in his blue eyes. "I know, don't... Came on, let's get you in bed."

"No!" the small kid growled, showing his stubbornness. He knew that he never, ever should defy his mother, he had done that once, it hadn't been a pretty sight. His mother raised him to be a "proper" young man and most of all show respect, he didn't knew much about her childhood, but he had the feeling that it hadn't been such a great one. He used to imagine that she had grown up in the middle of a military base or something like that.

"I'll be with you... You are missing a great change to sleep with an actress. And that his great for a boy's reputation" now his mother was making fun of him in from of that complete stranger. The best way for him to remain calm after "something like that" was to enjoy, laugh and don't think about what could have happened... However in this case was only making things worse.

"We'll stay here."

"Liam, we are not alone."

"Ditch him!"

"Do not talk in that tone, I'm not raising you to be like some spoiled kid and we don't "ditch" people like they are garbage!" _That one was for me._ Tony thought.

"Mother, he's no one for us. He is just some guy!"

"Do I look like someone that sleeps with 'just some guy'? No! So never say that again!" Pepper warned "Apologise."

When Liam looks to his mother, he saw her disappointment. He never had seen her like this and he never knew his mother could be this stubborn, but this was savage and unknown territory and he wanted to get away alive. However he decided to play his last card.

"If I say sorry, he'll have to go." he said with a small voice, tears washing his face. Playing this card had reached his goals in the past with several adults but in other hand, he never had tried it while blackmailing his own mother. He hoped that the pity would, eventually overcome his request...

"Your. Room. Now. And you are grounded to further notice, clear? "

"AS WATER!"

The room was now quiet. William took a deep breath, turn his back and left, holding his head high as if he was the proudest and best behaved kid in the whole world. But before he crossed the door, he sent a heated look to Tony.

It was the first time that his mother hadn't come to calm him.

Liam's mind was connecting dots, trying to figure out who was that man, a man that could turn him against his mother. He always had the feeling that even if he hadn't been planned, he was the most important thing in his mother's life, but the situation showed him otherwise. Knowing that he couldn't conclude anything based in a onetime occasion, he understood that he needed to investigate deeper than this. _Never fight against logic._


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry about taking this long... I really appreciate the support that you guys have been giving to me, so thank you very much... (I never thought that someone would read this) I loved the reviews, they have been very helpfull for me and I hope to receive more after this chapter : ) Oh, before I forget, I like making fun of Captain.**

_"Hi Pepper, where are you?" Pepper heard while answering her phone. Rhoeds usually didn't call her at such time of the day well, at least not in some years. The years when the alcohol and women ruled Tony's life, in a time that she was obligated to deal with all of Tony's self-destructive and childish behaviours. Who was she kidding; she still had to deal with that nowadays._

_"On my way home… Why?"_

_"You better come quickly." Rhodes shouted due to the constant beat of the music involving him._

_"Please no..."_

_In the dark road there were more cars than the usual for this time of day. It was a hot night, the usual for the summer in California and the fast and luxurious cars were heading in high speed for the mansion._

_A party._

_It was exactly what she needed in the end of a hard day of work, divided between contacts with the government, incompetent employees, Nick Fury and probably a food poisoning. And now Tony, because her bad days could never end without that man doing something stupid and unthinkable to most of people, yet for Tony it was just being himself._

_Over the years there had been parties due to everything and nothing. The problem wasn´t the party itself or even the potential damage that could create, the problem was Tony. Parties weren't exactly the worst thing that could happen in the house, but Tony Stark in a party's mood... All kinds of things used to occur when lest expected, a party wasn't a good party until the piano was in the swimming pool or until someone tried to practice bungee jumping inside, using bed sheets as a rope and that was only the beginning. Yet she was always there to force him to end it, when things started to get out of control. Maybe that needed to change, he wasn't a child any more, and he needed to be responsible and punished for his actions._

_While entering the mansion, she was thinking about her obviously failed relationship with her husband. Nevertheless, her thoughts changed when she saw the living room. The piano was stuck in the ceiling, there was a big hole in the floor, the back of the gigantic plasma had been ripped off, and two girls were fighting each other, while stepping on broken pieces of multi-coloured glass. Still there was a ridiculous number of men and women dancing, practically naked, oblivious to the damage in the room. The music continued with its regular beat, the bright blue lights that strangely reassembled to the light from the arc reactor were still washing over the crowd, it didn't matter the amount of liquor or blood on the white floor, people were dancing like it was the most normal think in the world. However Tony wasn't in the middle of them, no... Tony was in the pool, surrounded by topless women, burning bills with Grover Cleveland's face in them and a blue and purple fire that quickly consumed the green grass that was located between the ceramic path by the pool and the house. But that wasn't the most notorious thing of all... The Audi was sinking towards the bottom of the pool._

_"What the fuck Tony?!" she scream from the top of her lungs._

_"Honey, you're home!" his face showed a bright smile, while the girls next to him were giggling and trying to seek for Tony's attention._

_"NO SHIT!" she was truly pissed at him, when locked at her in the eyes he saw her disappointment and a violent rage and that wasn't good. He had never seen her like this before._

_"Pepper, don't be like that, I'm trying to make you happy!"_

And that, ladies and gentleman, is the statement of the year...

_"By burning our house to the ground!? I can't take this anymore..." his heart missed a beat with the last statement. He was trying to make her let loss one day and be happy with him, without caring about their image or public comments. He just wanted her to have fun once, not much to ask for._

_She never knew what actually had brought her to her breaking point. Maybe it was how things had been going in general. She never had considered herself a quitter until that night, losing was never present in her dictionary, but Anthony Edward Stark had madesure of that..._

* * *

"Tony ..." she mumbled while trying to break the silence that had been imposed in the moment that Liam left the room.

"He seems like a great kid..." ironically answering to her previous call. Liam's departure did seem like a normal thing to do by his eyes, but even he knew that wasn't such a good thing...

"Anthony" she warned, this was the type of gaze that he only would receive if the conversations or actions were heading to a very dangerous territory.

"I mean, seriously... A captain's sparkle pants unconditional fan."

"At the very least he uses pants!"

Pepper's remark was interrupted by his laughter, it was good to see him happy, she hadn't been able to see that in some time. When she left, it never crossed her mind that Tony hadn't seen that coming. For her it was obvious that everything was going in a wrong way, but him, well for Tony relations weren't easy and he probably never understood the meaning of a healthy relationship, considering how he had end their first one... There were still regrets... Yet she knew that he needed to grow up, she had always known that, however there was hope, hope that he could do better, that he could change. And that didn't happen...

"That was the reason, wasn't it?" she asked with a very suspicious look.

"Come on!"

"God, you are impossible!"

"You love me this way." shock had paralysed her, she never image that he would say something like that. Although she didn't regretted her decision, she was expecting revolt, pain and most of all rage, the confront had been inevitable in her mind and he certainly would blame her. But then again, this was Tony and he was clearly drunk. "Do you know what...? I thought about our reencounter many times, hell that is all I usually thing about... but I never imagined that it would be this way..."

"I never thought I would see you again, at least for a while...I was so mad at you and don't even bother to tell me that you didn't understood why I left, because if you do, you will prove my theory that you weren't really caring...and I will call William and say that you want to seduce Steve." Deep down he knew that she was absolutely right, he took her from granted since the day they said "I do" and he knew that things had been going in a wrong way but he was still recovering due to her departure.

"Steve!" he cursed, he never would understand why she called them by their first name. "I'm glad to see you again thought..." Tony would never cease to surprise her.

"Me too..."

"So you left because of the kid, right?" he joked, he could see things from her perspective right now, but still... For him everything was so hard to forgive and understand.

* * *

His mother hadn't come to him...

"Code red, Frankie." Liam whispered after the long time that he waited for his friend to answer the phone.

"Willy... I don't remember what code red is." a sleepy voice returned.

"Never call me that again...Ok, it means no walks in the park, no visiting the Richards time and more ..."

"Are you grounded, again!?"

"Shut it genius! I' m not grounded... I mean nothing that William's made with love breakfast won't resolve. My mom has a ...a... man."

"Really... You know my uncle Johnny always had hoped that... "

"Gross!" in the other line, someone was laughing. The idea was just unthinkable in Liam's mind. Uncle Johnny... Johnny Storm... He was more of a child than they were, not to talk about the messes that he was in most of the time. Franklin's father had restricted their "Johnny time" without adult supervision and it wasn't just reducing, it was more turn it to none existent, there were many people complaining and saying that they pick up ideas from him, yet that was unfair, they would never need someone to given them ideas...

"So, who is he?" Frankie asked with a serious voice.

"I don't know... but this one is different, of that I'm sure..." William was locking for a clear path to the living room, hoping that he could discover something about that man's identity. Although no one was around he needed to be careful... He was already grounded, he couldn't make things worse. It was unbelievable to many how he could get away that easily where his mother was concerned, but that had always come with a price. He was simply perfect for his mother, nothing that would indicate that the accusations that were constantly made against him were true. However Virginia Potts wasn't woman to mess with, she knew how William was... That was one of the reasons with she always wanted to keep an eye on him, to show him that she knew how impossible he was when she wasn't around.

"Why?"

"I kind of lost it..." he whispered with a sad voice.

"UHM... You got us into trouble with that one! Now my dad will know that it didn't work! God, how stupid can you be!?" Frankie sad, raising his voice gradually.

"Don't worry, Reedie told mom that our power was just supressed and that we still could release it. I don't think that your father suspect that you, not I, but Franklin messed with his great creation at was going to save us from ourselves."

"If you want I can fix it! Ingrate..."

"You are forgetting the main point here." he mumbled while carefully avoiding all the furniture. Some of it was out of place, in this times he cursed himself for being smarter than normal 6 and an half year old child, his mind liked to wander and he didn't like the road that out of place furniture and several places of clothing could lead. He knew what sex was since he was three, giving access to a dictionary and an encyclopaedia wasn't a good idea. People used to underestimate him, they though 'Hey, he's a kid so he must like images and if he is so smart he must like to read...' but people in general were less intelligent than he was at 3 years old. Although it had been a shock, it was amazing to see his mother trying to explain that to him... And after that, his mother had talked to him about the importance of sex in a relationship. Then again, that piece of information, not for is age. Not to talk about the amount of information gathered with Uncle Johnny's help.

"Did you find anything?"

"If you keep your stupid remarks, is going to be hard..." Bingo! There was a lost wallet between the grey sofa and the carpet. "This is weird... "

"What?"

"He doesn't have anything, just cash...And a picture... Frankie, there's a stalker in my house! "

**This one was bigger than the usual and I will continue to explain Liam's existence and surrounding mysteries in the next chapters. Thank you again and review (I hope that you guys liked Franklin's aperence, he's just like Liam and they both need friends that can understand them ).**


	4. Chapter 4

_**So... this is really unexpected but ...! Enjoy!**_

_"Anna, Anna Marie Stark" _Perfect

_She was here and she was the most perfect thing in the whole world. Their heir, their best invention... They had fought for her, against their parents and their conservative wills and in the end of all, it had been worth it. Marie was definitely the most perfect baby in the world._

_It started in a simple way... Tony felt in love for an amazing girl. She was the love of his life, someone who owned half of him that could control him and understand him._

_Ginny was an almost southern girl with a cute accent, oldest daughter of GEN Henry Potts that was in the right path to be the next General of the Army. She had born in Conneticon, but due to her father rank she moved to the south. When they met for the first time, an eight year old Tony was wearing a suit, walking hand in hand with his mother. He was used to wait for his father. In his life it had been always like that, his mother liked to say that she had waited for Howard to give birth to Tony, even if that was true, he wasn't known for his patience and be forced to walk with his mother wasn't helping to reduce his boredom._

_Someone had run against him. A girl who seemed a few years younger than him with big emerald eyes and auburn hair that ran free behind her. She beamed at him, apologized to his mother and run away from them, laughing to the open arms of a tall man with red hair that had exited the room where the meeting was being held. After that day he eventually forgot her, the mysterious girl with red hair._

_"Come on Tony!" Victor begged. The seventeen year old was unsure if he should go or not. He had a strange feeling about believing in Victor. He had a record for take him away of the right path, he tried to convince his parents of that but they never believed. Every time that he would go with him to a party he would end up in someone's girlfriend bed or in jail and if Tony was in a really lucky day, he also would be in the front page of every national newspaper by the morning._

_He ended up accepting his fate; they drove for hours, which explained why Victor wanted to leave at five in the afternoon. The car stopped in a small town in Westchester, New York. Tony couldn't figure out how his class mate was able to discover parties in some of the most improbable places in the world._

_The house was full, mostly Princeton and NY students, with no doubt, lived closer to the small town. The house could have been considered a mansion, if not compared with Tony's. The grass had been cut with metrical precision, there were torches indicating the way and a magnificent roman statue in the middle of a fountain decorated with gold. This wasn't owned by a normal family with normal wages. This was probably the house of a politician or a very successful man; again he couldn't understand why his friend had brought him there. This year he already had is fair share of wild parties, he had promised to his family that he wouldn't go to parties or clubs or places were alcohol was served and he intended to keep his promise but his friend really wanted to come here due to some unknown reason. Well, he could always blame Victor and it would be a waste to spend hours trapped in that car and don't enjoy the party._

_"Have a great night Tony, because sure as hell that I'm going to have one." Tony started laugh and nodded. His friend was already trying to reach the 'reason' why they were here. She was tall, with a slim waist and a tanned skin with bright blue eyes that made her resemble to the pictures of Greek exotic nymphs that swam naked in rivers to inspire the artists, well she already had inspired Victor to be a great pain today._

_"Hi." someone whispered at his ear. "Stop trying to look at your friend's butt, you're making my friend nervous." Tony continue laughing and though about a came back, yet when he saw her face, he froze. He knew that accent and those green eyes, that flaming red hair and the smirk on her face. "Lost function of your mouth, big boy?"_

_"And you don't even know how big..."_

_"I'll figure it out, Mr Stark."_

_The rest of the night was passed in some room of the mansion, trying to memorize every inch of that girl, the first one that he considered pretty and not a gross unknown being from a different planet. She hadn't been his first, but everything felt knew. This sounded terribly lame in his head but it was the true, be inside of her was different but not, by all means less pleasant. Maybe that happened because she was the only girl that he couldn't have, since he didn't even know her name let alone discover her and her body. At this moment he felt guilty for not remembering so often the prettiest girl in the world._

_Time had passed and they would meet again. One day she told him that she was expecting his child. A child that became their most prized possession. In the beginning it had been hard, hard to face his parents, who weren't showing the slightest trace of happiness, hard to face her parents, that were certainly after his head and hard to face the society as son and daughter of influential members of that same society and now as teen parents, yet it was strange how their parents had been able to contain that information, making sure that no one besides the right people had known about their involvement and Ginny's pregnancy._

_"She has your eyes Ginny." Tony said proudly to the mother of his daughter. He loved her and for some months now, carried an engagement ring always with him waiting for the right opportunity. He was afraid of her answer, afraid that in Ginny's thoughts he wouldn't be more than the father of her child or that he only did it because of Marie._

_"But I bet she'll be just as stubborn as you." Tony would never stop being happy with those two women by his side, they were his family from now on._

_"Mr Stark I would like a word with you if possible." Anna Marie's doctor called from the door. After a look from Ginny, he reluctantly made his way to the corridor._

_"Mr Stark, I've noticed a few irregularities in your daughter chart. It seems that her cells are producing a wrong protein, a protein that is commonly seen in-"_

_"No" Tony say in a hard voice._

_"Sir, you must know that the proteins are formed based in the geneti-"_

_"I know what it means but you are wrong Doc." Tony made his best to don't scream with the man. This was his daughter that he was talking about. He didn't have anything against mutants yet it was hard to hear that his daughter possibly could be one._

_"Mr Stark I have orders to report this type of cases." Now the man was asking for a beat up. It was known that there where government based facilities were they studied mutants; however no one knew if they ever returned._

_"The technology is not advanced enough for you to be certain of the information that you gave me, until you have solid proof you're not doing anything, clear. And if you have a doubt, you can always talk with the maternal grandfather of my child and express your concerns. Thank you for caring Sir but I don't want you as my child's doctor anymore."_

_"Of course Mr Stark... Yet be aware that one day someone will have the proof." Tony prayed that the man didn't contact the government because if he did that, the chances of keeping his daughter were close to nothing._

_He quickly entered the room and explained the threat of the doctor regarding Anna Marie. Their decision was to get out of the hospital as sooner as possible, however their worst fear came true, the doctor had contacted the authorities. Henry Potts had been their only hope. The only man that was able to maintain Ann safe and healthy. After less than a day of consideration, the best for their daughter was to stay with Ginny's parents. Henry had enough power to make her practically untouchable._

_They had given up of their innocent little girl._

* * *

"He is a mutant." Tony stated with a blank expression. Everything felt into place. William was a mutant, but still... He was too young to do that type of power demonstrations. Mutants were supposed to develop their capacities in their teens. Just like their daughter. Not exactly like her but in the age that she started to show her powers by leaving her 'almost' boyfriend in a permanent coma. When Pepper told him with tears on her face the reason why their daughter had run way to god knows where, he knew that they had made the wrong choice. Yet, in that day he thought that his daughter had the best power ever. He would never have to worry about boys. How he had misunderstood her power... "He's too young..."

"Well, he's not the only one."

"Yes, but the other cases have explanations."

"Liam has one too..." Tony blinked and patiently waited for his ex-wife response. "The radiation produced by the arc reactor."

Fuck... My fault...

Even in these days, it was hard to be a mutant. The Weapon – X project had been cancelled and raised a lot of controversy, yet there were still people who wanted to end with the mutant race. He would hear all type of things in SHIELD and in meetings with the government and there were too many disturbing rumours about reopening the X project or a brand new called project Paradise. In the end, everyone knew that these were the hardest times, before they knew what their threat was but now... Still, every congressman and senator in the country talked about equal rights, the end of hate crimes and the magnificent evolution that was in front of all of them. This was obviously a useless effort to calm the mutant community and try to assure them that everything was fine.

"You should have told me..."

"And what, never see him again!? We had to give Annie away!" He knew that this coming. They had never discussed Anna Marie apart from two times. The first was in the day that she had run away. They tried to find her with all their strength , however Anna had join a terrorist group, needless to say that the ended up contacting Prof. Xavier but they only found her after some time. The second had been before their wedding, she had to be the first one to know. Marie decided that she didn't care and simply told them that she had nothing to do with their lives. Marie broke them with her words, yet he knew that they would affect Pepper much more than him. He remembered to see the guilt in her eyes, when she handed Marie to her father, he didn't need to be told that she had always regretted their decision, from that day on she didn't feel like a mother, she felt like worst person in the world, someone who didn't deserve her own child.

His Ginny had changed because of that, she wasn't the same girl who would do wild things for no apparent reason. After years without seeing her, he found a mature woman with a cold expression that didn't care much about him or the past. Ginny had transformed herself in a more beautiful but completely different person. She was Virginia, the breath-taking model or cold-hearted bitch, depending of the person that you asked. Not the sweet Ginny that had been the mother of his child. However she had a new thing in her that made him fall in love with this new person, she fought him like no one would.

However she had been there in his worst moment, an event that he hoped to never relieve again. His addiction... Since that day she was Pepper, a mix between Ginny and Virginia. Yet, true be told no matter how much she changed; in the end he would still love her.

"I ... Tony, I could never pass through that again. I would never put any of my children through that again." She mumbled.

"That's why you didn't come back... You thought in going back right?" he seemed like a small boy, afraid of the answer trying to hold on to her as much as he could before she threw him out.

"It was hard... When I left you were searching for someone how wasn't me, at least not for what I was in those days. You wanted the past Tony, but I couldn't live in an illusion, pretending that we were happy. Besides you were slipping right through my fingers" He simply listened to her words, while he was playing with a lock of her hair. "My biggest fear was to forget. Yet when I started trying to reach to you, I understood that it was more dangerous to remember too much."

"And Liam?"

"What?"

"He can't suffer from things that are not his fault. He needs a father to teach him that intelligence is way more powerful than men in ridiculous costumes." Pepper suddenly became calmer, Tony was still obnoxious but she missed him and his unreadable behaviour that was the medicine for all her unhappy thoughts. "God, I'm so drunk…"

"Back to the old habits…"

"Not all of them." That had to change from now on. If he wanted Pepper back, he had to stop everything. Crappy coffee and churches, if that was what he had to endure to have her… So be it…

* * *

"How can you handle it?" Jubilee started.

"Handle what?" Logan roughly replied.

"Logan, to be precise, how many teams are you part of?" half of the people who were in the room were now trying to hear their exchange. This happened every month, without Liam and Frank, trying to pick on Logan and see who could make him lose his temper first. If those kids where there, the number would increase for two times a week, but luckily Reed had come for them for their summer vacations. It was rare for parents to come for their kids, but Franklin and William weren't the normal kids, their parents still came and knew how to deal with them. Most of the teens didn't understand why those kids were so lucky, to be accepted by their families. People with an extraordinary patience had given up on that cause. Storm had them in her office most of the days, Beast would forbid them from entering in the lab, 'danger room', cerebra and the list continued to the point of not being allowed in most of the classroom. However, they would make sure that they entered in all of those places. Rogue had tried reversed psychology with Franklin once; it didn't work, by the end of the day the danger room had been programmed to make the user fight against Disney characters and babies.

Logan left the room on a quick pace, without the patience to deal with his students today, even if they were his personal favourites.

"I won!" Jubilee cheered, jumping as high as she could, while the other presents lowered their there gaze in boredom, hoping that Logan would do something better.

"Love, that wasn' a victory." Rogue said from the black sofa, she was reading a magazine and sending looks to the other side of the room, where a handsome man with a smirk on his face was standing.

"Yes, it was! "

"It's not considered a victory if no one went flyin'." Several nod their heads in agreement. They all remembered how Logan would react with the boys. In the beginning, he would catch them and make them pay; they both had scars to show it. Then everyone would be sorry of the innocent little kids and for a brief time, most of the institute students hated Logan. However, people started to see the real side of those manipulative kids. Nowadays, they expected a good fight, because Liam had gain the habit of facing Logan and unfortunately, the kid was getting better every time and that meant problems to everyone. If someone like Wolverine couldn't stop Liam ... He would be impossible and that without taking Franklin in the equation.

"E! Breaking new: the Starks are back!" Rogue froze when she heard it... The Starks are back... No they can't be that stupid... Not a good thing for Liam, that's for sure. She didn't need to be an expert to realise that her brother was more than overly protective towards their mother, besides he was too much like their father... Most of the kids now where looking to the TV, commenting how much the couple should be together or how hot the ex-Mrs Stark was or who as the biggest Ironman fan in the room.

People in general didn't know who her parents were. But there were exceptions... Scott Summers had been her mother's best friend, yet she took after Logan in Cyclops case, which meant bear him not love him. Reed, Ben and Rhodey always had been friends with her father; she knew that they had supported him for most of the bad times of his life so they also knew about her and Liam. Yet in Liam's case they had known because of her mother that had needed Reed's expertise and support, which lead to also inform Ben and with Rhodey she had convinced him to make her track impossible to discover, at least for a while and to explain to him why she hadn't come back. The Professor and Nick Fury knew, at least about her, since the day that ran away from her grandparents' house. However some bad guys also knew... Obadiah, as her grandfather best friend and partner had helped him to make possible that almost no one knew about her. Victor was her godfather, but he changed, he was Dr Doom now, certainly not her father's favourite party friend. At least, their enemies didn't knew anything about Liam, the best hidden in plain sight kid in the world.

When she learned about her mother serving divorce papers to her father, she immediately understood that something was wrong. It had been unusual to wait a couple of months for her mother's action; at least it was for Virginia Stark. She was never known for naivety or sweetness in her life, she was recalled by heartless choices that needed to be done for the sake of others, but wait that long for her decision regarding her marriage... Anna just thought that the papers had published lies once again.

Her mother wouldn't leave her father. However, sometime later she understood her mother's reasons. Her father wasn't the same and she just wanted some time way to think. But then Pepper received the results of her annual check-up, since that day, she knew exactly what she needed to do.

In Anna Marie's opinion, her mother had done the right choice. Yet she envied her younger brother. Her mother had taken the safest path and had stayed with Liam. In her case, her parents didn't try to stay together, besides they were too young to have a child, let alone be forced into that life threatening situation. But in the end, her relationship with her mother had improved in a substantial way and all due to William and his ability to get into trouble.

"No..." Although her statement didn't pass from a mere whispered, most of the heads were turned in her direction. That's what you get for open your mouth with this crowd...Stupid.

"What ma chere?" Gambit was now kneeled in front of her, searching for her eyes.

"Leave it." she stood up, passing through him and walking away, leaving most of the bystanders open-mouthed.

She needed to find out if that was true. But she prayed that the news wasn't more than a bad joke, if not for her sake, for William's sake.

Hope you enjoyed. Today I decided that I should go off the beaten track. All the characters, apart from Liam, belong to Marvel. Some of you probably won't like it because my ideas are unusual but the thing is when you read comics especially from marvel all kind of groups and characters appear out of nowhere and that happens with Iron Man too, I just change the things in general.

I decided to post this today because I'm really lazy and the Iron Man trailer came out and suddenly I was writing again.

Review and kick my ass if you want to...


	5. Chapter 5

**HI! So well, I decided to update this story, still I don't know if I'm going to continue cause no one reads this... So, yep... Happy holidays and stuff :)**

_"Annie, do happy endings exist?"_

_"Move Liam..."_

_"Annie!" William was whining beside his sister's bed at seven A.M. on a Saturday, which meant relax and restore energies. Yet she knew that with William's presence that would be impossible. He could behave like a normal kid of his age, but no... That was too normal._

_"Ah think tha' ye know the answer to tha'..."_

_"Do you know that you don't speak with an accent when you're really really mad?"_

_"Very useful information... Oh, heard tha'... Ah' m totally losin' it."_

_"Do happy endings exist?" _God, this is one of those days..._ In these days, Liam had the tendency to be impossible, yet never directly to her, probably due to their biological connection, their mother's rage or her powers. He wouldn't scream, kick or broadcast his internal jackass in her presence. Some people thought that it was suspicious that Franklin and only him, tried to pick on her. Franklin was more contained in using his powers and his definition of fun didn't exactly passed by fights. Unlike Liam who was always up for confrontation... Who would know that egos and big heads were genetic from father to son? Still, from time to time he would resort to the philosophic side of his brain to piss people off. No one understood if his questions were made to bother them or to make them reflect about their lives. But, no matter what, it was always unpleasant to wake up like this._

_"You know, like in books or mom's -"_

_"Shh..."_

_"Movies!"_

_"No Liam, ther' aren' those. Now, please go t' sleep."_

_"Because that would be weird, wouldn't it? Everything would be perfect like... like in a Utopia." Rogue never knew which the problem was and he never made it easy. "Funny, I still have the opinion that Utopia is a bad place."_

_"Liam, please go to bed..."_

_"Would you like something that perfect?" her brother was now sitting on top of her bed with his blue eyes full of excitement and his Lakers shirt. "But then again, you and mom said that what makes a person perfect are their differences and flaws, yet in almost every case those 'differences' are bad to the rest of the world..." She regretted ever discussing this subject with him. For her, it felt like she was trying to convince herself. Her "differences" had done well in a very restrict number of cases, however in her life in general the effects were very severe. In her mom's case, it was a way to make William accept who he was._

_"Do you think that in a perfect world we would exist? Wouldn't it be wrong for mom to have us in the first place?" Well, it seemed that William was finally reaching the source of his problem today._

_"Wha' did yay 'eard?"_

_"Nothing... But that's the problem. I guess." He was so innocent and naïve in times like this. It could be quite scary for people who weren't use to deal in regular basis with male Starks, their moods could change drastically in a matter of seconds._

_"William, why wouldn' we exist? We aren' perfect but we are a family, even if it is a very dysfunctional one, 'kay? And no, ma didn't make th' wrong thing... Havin' a child isn't a bad thing ... And no, she wasn't forced." She could read him like a book, maybe because she had the same questions in her early teens, however unlike him, she didn't had someone to talk with and it certainly it wasn't a problem at her brother's age. Kids of his age should be enjoying the perfect life in the perfect family and the perfect house. Where the biggest problem was what it was going to be the dinner or who the best superhero in the world was. That didn't happen in real life... Although William had a difficult life, he still debated a lot regarding the second biggest dilemma of the boys with his age._

_"It's just... I mean all of the others kids, they had both of their parents with them... Well at least they were there, until the powers showed off..."_

_"I didn't have them."_

_"Sorry."_

_"Yet, what do you prefer, sugah, two parents that kicks you into the street in your adolescence or a mother tha' sticks by you, even though she knew tha' you would be a mutant?"_

_"But you didn't have that ..."_

_"Different times... Besides we are talkin' about you."_

_"Are you pissed?"_

_"You surprise me every day..."_

_"Well... I would choose mom, but we... I mean, I never see her; I can't call her mom in public or just go somewhere nice with her... "_

_"Better than nothin', do you even thought about the amount of kids where, whose parents said tha' they weren't their children anymore? Mom and dad can be obnoxious even in small doses but at least they would never say tha'. "_

_"DAD!? Us?"_ Shit. Why did I say that ..._ At this hour, she couldn't even think about her words. However, although she had the opinion that her brother should know the identity of their father, it wasn't her place to make such a revelation. In her case, her grandfather always made a scene when she did something wrong and blamed it on her father. The main reason why, at her grandfather's opinion, Virginia's life had become that it was today. In her eyes, although her parents' relationship was a royal mess, her mother's life hadn't been so bad. She had work hard to reach her goals but the thing that most bothered her grandfather was that since the day that Ann Marie's custody had passed to him, her mother hadn't asked for his help in nothing more of her life. Between posing for magazines, being that way considered a stain for the family, and asking for help, Virginia Potts wouldn't consider twice, modelling was the answer. Ann had the feeling that her mother's actions where in some way connected to her and the impositions that had been made by general Potts. She guessed that he probably had mentioned putting her up for adoption, he had the habit of doing that ... Still, she couldn't fully understand why her mother or even her father hadn't come sooner for her..._

_"Who is he?!"A cheering voice reached her ears, while a blur of purple and yellow was running in the middle of her bed._

_"Stop! You are such a girl!"_

_"I am not!" In the middle of his outrage screamed, while his sister has laughing in his face. When he understood her strategy it was too late to ask more questions, now he was trying to reach her with a pillow and a cocky smirk on his face. He wouldn't give up on his answer, but now it was risky to try to pass her psychic barriers, besides she was wide wake and aware of her words._

* * *

**2037****, Section 1**

"Who are you!?"

"Ahhhh… I'm How-" the man's screams travelled through the iron quarters, it seemed that even the structure suffered with him. The sound was frightening. No matter what was the answer, every soldier knew that the man was doomed. In a man's life, he could be responsible of many things. Yet guilt of being who he was wasn't one of them… Few were informed of his supposed crimes, however regardless of his side in battle, he had to pay.

Howard Anthony Stark II had been his name. After all of the pain inflicted upon him, not even he could be sure of that.

"Say it!"

"I'm no -" a violent shock passed through his body. He was used to this… The daily tortured to unable him of turning himself against his captors, the ones that had supposedly save his life through technology. Hypocrites that was what they were… They said that the Iron Age was coming, no technology, the sound of that always left a sour taste in his mouth. And nevertheless, they exterminated billions with it.

"Who are YOU?"

"No one…" the blood was quickly pouring from what the sharp blades had left behind. Pain was the only constant that he knew in his life. At this moment, he embraced it like nothing else in his life; he could not fear something that he knew so well. The endless nights that he spend turning in his bed because of his conscience, the voice of millions that blamed him for their death… He wasn't supposed to feel…

"What are you!?"

"A… A war machine…" he whispered with a dark smile on his face.

"Welcome back, sir."

* * *

_A stalker in my house..._

The small flash light had been turned on all night, while Liam was trying to be certain to the stalker's identity. For a boy like him, surrounded by fights, super humans and mutants, but most of all science… That man was Tony Stark.

He couldn't make sense of the situation, his mother was supposed to be responsible. She should follow her advises that she had tried to brain wash him with since his birth. Liam was pretty sure that bringing an ex-husband was against the so-called "rules to be good", even if he was a good enough super hero. His mother had never talked to him about her marriage, yet she had never tried to hide anything from him. And now, he was the responsible of repairing the situation, he needed to find a way to keep him out of their lives.

Franklin hadn't been that much of a help... However, he did made stand out a very important point, behaving like a spoiled kid would only bring them together. He needed to gain his trust and then... Then he would fallow his fate of being the greatest son in the world by fixing his mother's broken heart.

Suddenly the annoying ring of the phone echoed throughout the entire room. Who dare to phone someone this early on a Sunday and breaking Liam's line of thinking?

"What!?"

"Liam, wh' are you answering the phone?"

"I asked first!"

"Give it to m-"

"NO! I asked first, how dare you to call at this hour!?" he loved his sister, but this has just disrespectful.

"William, it's 8 A.M., you wake me up way sooner." his sister talked to him very quietly, it was obvious that, in part, Liam's problem was lack of sleep.

"It's Sunday!"

"If yay scream at me again, Ah sure to god, William Edward, tha' you're going to regret it. Ah have evidences of the mess that yay are into."

"Lie-"

"The Powers." Annie wasn't supposed to know that. That only concerned himself, Franklin and their 'associated'. Those so-called associated were brothers that had gained super powers, spending half of the time fighting against enemies and the other half, trying to behave like normal kids and hide everything from their parents. Frankie envied them for their parents' lack of knowledge and their 'normal' life, driven by Frankie's curiosity; they ended up fighting side by side against Sabertooth. After that, an unstoppable team was made, they helped other heroes from time to time, yet their parents hadn't even considered the idea that they were involved in this particular team, besides they spent most of the year in the institute and no one would ever believe in such thing. However Annie, wasn't as stupid as most people thought at first sight, quite on the contrary. In Liam mind Ann Marie could be a lot of things but certainly stupidity wasn't in the mix.

"The what?"

"Bye Liam." she hung up, leaving him talking alone... The whole phone call had been suspicious, Annie never called.

At this hour, it wasn't worth to go to bed. His mother woke up at extremely disturbing hours, forcing him also to get up from his bed because god forbid if he was left alone at the house. It wasn't understandable, he knew enough of physics and chemistry to do incredible stupid things like mix water and electricity or play with fire. His mother should give him a change, a vote of confidence, he was smart enough.

Jumping from the chair, he stood by a shelf in the other side of the room. He liked Iron Man, most of his actions figures were the Cap or Iron Man, but even if Iron Man was good, Tony Stark was a stalker trying to get into his mother's good grace. This had to change...

"Next stop, toilet." Liam whispered to the smiley and strong-looking action figures in front of him.

**Howard is based on the comic character, but he is younger, less evil (kind of) and less hurt by Mandarim.**

**Regarding the last chapter, it is possible to find if you have a mutation in your genes by proteins, because there are only 21 in a normal person but if you have certain types of mutations you can have different proteins but that is never a good thing... If you want to know more, Biology is the answer.**


	6. Chapter 6

**I have re-written everything so, seriously read from the beginning.**

**Hope that someone likes this. I've decided on a new course of story... Mostly because of the recent comics that I have read, yet it is still AU. The only known son of Tony Stark deserved better than be the most efficient weapon of Mandarin's army.**

**The characters besides Liam are not mine, but you all know that.**

**Thank you for everything.**

* * *

_"Sooo…" the heavy silence was killing him. His daughter, his greatest creation was not even able to look him in the eyes. They were incarcerated inside in one of the many rooms that the institute had at its disposal. "Do you want to stay here now?"_

_His team had failed against her and the x-men had failed too. The only one able to stop her had been him, one of the people that she most hated in the world. It never had been his intention to hurt his child but she was so lost. He could understand her rage, he deserved her rage. Yet many that she had defeated hadn't. Most of his team members were slowly recovering and one of them had not been so lucky, Carol was powerless. His daughter would have to live with the guilt for the rest of her life, at this moment he would give anything to take all of her pain away._

_"Do yay even care?" he hadn't hear that musical voice in so long, yet this time her voice was distorted by the poison that Magneto and his 'Brotherhood' had putted into her. The man would pay for what he had done to his child._

_"Of course I care, Annie." Teenagers could be so difficult… When she was younger, she would run towards him with her beautiful smile and her arms high in the hope that he would be there to hold her tight. But truth be told, he should have predicted something like this… He should have been there for her. Between being publicly recognized as his daughter and turning into a terrorist, he would prefer the first one any day._

_"NO, YOU DO NOT."_

_"I am your-"_

_"Mah what!? A stranger tha' saw me twice in all mah life? A simple biological donor to mah bein'?" she was right, nothing that he would say would change that. He could remember all of the mistakes he had made in his life. The alcohol, the drugs, the loss of everything he had, even himself, but nothing could compare itself to the regret that he felt for not being the one to raise his daughter._

_"You are right, but it does not change the fact that I am your father. And there isn't anything in this world that can change that." A sick laugh echoed in the small room. His baby girl had been replaced by a young woman that had very few patience to hear others, especially him. Her emerald gaze transmitted repugnance, her body language expressed disgust… What had people done to her?_

_"You'r just another human tha' doesn' know his place. Ah have to leave like this, not you but me. In fact it is your fault… Ah am a freak because of you."_

_"Do not say that word! And no, you are not."_

_"Yeh… I am!" the conviction in her voice made him take a few steps back. The hatred ran deeper than he could ever imagine, his daughter was disgusted of what she was. The problem weren't the not mutants or the way that they treated people like her, the problem was her and her powers._

* * *

**2037, Place unknown**

"Sir, we've lost the signal… The rebels are exterminated."

"Very well, the mission is complete." He hated this, being forced to kill innocents every day since his capture. When he was first brought to the presence of the imperator, he made a choice between his family and the rest of the population. Now he was sure he had made the wrong one. From time to time he would try to reverse the situation, which was when the really painful torture began. Some sessions could take days, other simple hours. His soldiers were responsible of make him stand by his first option. The irony of the situation, his men tortured him by night and fallowed his orders by day.

Every place that he landed was destroyed and after some years there was not much left of Earth. He should have prevented this, however he was no hero. In his mind his daughter or his father were much more important than everything or everyone else. Yet, at this time he doubted that his loved ones were still alive. His father had embraced madness the last time that he had seen him; his mother's and younger brother's deaths had reduced the great Tony Stark to nothing and his daughter… He had no idea if she was still alive. He used to be able to bear the weight of the many deaths caused by him due to the unrealistic hope that his family would be fine. He had been lying to himself since the beginning.

"Sir you hav -" it seemed that someone or something had stopped his soldiers. Idiots… "We are und-" the only sounds that he was able to hear through the transmitter were shouts and cries of pain. "Help, sir. The rebels-"

"Burn in Hell…" he slowly whispered in his metal cage. The brain washing had not been that much of an achievement in his case… _I've nothing to lose._

Before he knew his armour was forgotten in the middle of the wreckage that the War Machine had left behind. Quickly he made his way to the instable caves were the 'rebels' were hidden. There was a trail of destruction that he could fallow, he had been there before and hopefully he should find tools able assist him to take the three tracking devices that he was certain that had been implanted on his body. Then he just needed to regain part of his mind, which could take some time, pray for the lack of unexpected events. And finally he hoped that he could change everything…

* * *

"Jarvis…" Tony whined when the bright light of a new day disturbed him from his relaxed sleep, which didn't came by often in the last times. For a futurist, Tony Stark feared his own visions of the future, which could be easily mistaken with very terrifying nightmares. "Jarvis!"

"Tony… Shut up…" someone had smack him in the back of his head, yet the whole situation was too familiar. The women that he generally slept with were usually too keen on making a good impression to do something like that, only the ones that wanted him dead would hit him and that was never a reliable situation to be in. Still, he only knew one girl that would tell him directly to shut up.

Painfully, Tony opened his eyes. He wasn't in any of his many houses, of that he was certain, but the decoration was very similar to the one in his master room in Malibu. And then it all came back to him. The jealousy of seeing her with another man… The attraction… The lust… The shock… The confusion… The truth. It hadn't been an easy night and luckily she still was able to make the best of him come to the surface, if this had happened with anyone else…

He was lying on his stomach, with Pepper's warm body in close contact with his own. No matter how much years passed, their position would be always exactly the same, the close contact with her spooned in his right side, his possessive arm holding her tight and her left leg preventing him from escape. Since their divorce, he had been incapable to be with other women, besides his physical need. Even be in the same room as them would feel distressing, let alone actually sleep with them. And his conscience was always affected, especially after facing his daughter in some mission, just one look into her eyes and he would feel like the biggest jackass in the world.

She was stunning; she always had been, although she needed a reminder from time to time yet he had failed on that too. In the best memories of them working together, her blushing was always present due to the things that he used to say in regular basis. He could not count how many times he had search for her blush or her beautiful air in the middle of a crowd. It reached to the point were the first thing that he did when he stepped into anyplace was to look for her presence. After everything she was still the only one for him.

"Stop staring…" a smooth voice reached his ears. "You look like a pervert."

"Yeah, what more? I guess that you can call the midget and start renaming me."

"Tony… Please, I understand that you are hurt but don't take it on him." Her eyes were pleading for him to listen, but there was also fear within her gaze. And now he was starting to feel the rage, which clearly had been numbed by her presence. After years together, how could she state something like that?

"What!?"

"Just do not hurt -" he was starting to move in their embrace, which was clearly difficult. But then she saw the flash of fury in his eyes, in a graceful movement, she gave him the space that he needed. No matter how many men she would meet in her life, Tony would be always the best of them all… Yet, she was capable of anything to protect William, he had to face a lot in his life and adding Tony to the mix was alarming to say the least. Tony was a great father, he had been the one to support their daughter when she most had needed it, but sometimes he could hurt people intentionally. And William did not need that in his life.

"Do I look like someone that would hurt his own child?" His back was turned to her, while she rested her long fingers in his shoulder and resulting in his almost immediate relaxation. "Sorry…" he softly apologised.

"I'm sorry too." In a quick motion she was sited beside him, holding his callous hand. With one simple gesture, she was able to make him feel the intimacy that he missed so much. Only Pepper could do that. He hastily understood that her apologize meant more than every word that he had heard in his entire life. And surely not that related to the actual conversation. He had waited years to her it from her. Yet she should not feel that guilty where their life together was regarded. They both were responsible for it, however if he had fought harder since the beginning, if he hadn't run, if he hadn't tried to hurt her in every opportunity that he had… "He doesn't deserve to have such a difficult life."

"I know…"

"He reminds me so much of you…" with a smirk in face, he reached for her hair, encouraging her to continue. They were alike in so many ways, yet she was aware of how much he had suffered, especially with the absence of people that were supposed to be there to love him. And she didn't want for any of her children the same thing that had happened to their father. With Annie, she had failed, yet she tried in every change that she got to reverse the situation. In Liam's case, she would not fail. "It was never easy… In his mind everything is analysed, rationalised to the smallest detail. He doesn't understand people, why they act mostly based in their emotions. And believe me, he is not afraid to express his point of view in front of an angry mob."

"But you know…"

"Being different doesn't bother him in general cases, he sees his mutation as any true man of science, evolution. But from time to time he fears for others."

"Annie…"

"Annie."

"Which is understandable… But he doesn't have the same type of mutation as her, right?"

"No… It's not the same, at least to a certain point. Liam can control a large range of his powers." At least, that was good. Every time that he faced his daughter, he pained for her, knowing that it would be so hard for her to have an actual relationship with someone that she truly loved.

"In the end, he was my brains and your arrogance."

"My arrogance?"

**First of all, I realise that if at least one person was enjoying this I should not end it. But be aware that I can take months to finish this.**

**Thank you so much for the support, I'm not usually that dramatic.**

**So hope you liked it and comment on the obvious changes (box in the end). **


End file.
